EXPLOITATION - DEFINED
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Embedded within this name is the true motive of the organization. A fantastic example of truth in advertising. This organization and it’s board of directors receive millions of dollars every year from federal contributions (over $32 million alone in 2005). An incredible example of capitalistic individuals pushing their own agendas through perversions of truth and the exploitation of the very children they claim to protect.
The power of this organization should not be underestimated or overlooked. Their lobbying activities play a pivotal role in shaping public policy as it relates to peoples’ privacy, liberty, and freedoms. They are transforming the very foundations of our nation. Their testimonies to congress are frequent and lengthy, which is not only questionable but also likely in violation of IRS requirements and lobbying regulations as a 501 ©) Non-Profit organization.
The NCMEC serves as the central catalyst for the perpetuation of moral panic through the use of a "Deviancy Amplification Spiral". The spiral starts with some "deviant" act. Usually the deviance is criminal but it can also involve legal acts considered morally repugnant. Such as a missing, murdered or exploited child. The mass media report what they consider to be newsworthy. For a variety of reasons, what is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational perspective (such as statistics showing that the behavior or event is actually less common or harmful than generally believed) tends to be ignored.
Enter the Sex Offender Registry. The propaganda and myths surrounding registered sex offenders is the ultimate marketing tool for rallying the public to support, encourage, and even demand some of the most radical, unconstitutional laws in the history of our Nation. We must do these things to ensure our safety, at least that’s what we’re told. I urge anyone with any evidence that any of these draconian laws have had any positive or purported effect to contact me. PLEASE!
What the unsuspecting public fails to realize, is the far reaching consequences of these laws and the impact it has on the country as a whole as well as to law abiding citizens. Some argue that if you aren't doing anything wrong then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If this were a perfect world that might be true, but it is not. Add a little corruption to the access of people's personal information and problems can and will arise. We are ALL vulnerable to abuses of power and most anything can be bought and sold, for a price. Make no mistake, Big Brother is looking out for himself, NOT for you.
Simply taking a look at the board of directors and partners for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reveals much about the organization itself. Included are FBI, Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Former CIA director, Data miners, and corrupt politicians who are also paid lobbyists (like Dennis DeConcini). Suddenly it starts to look more and more like a para-military organization than a charity.
The board members are heads of federal agencies as well as business owners with their own agendas, who gain both money and power through the work and lobbying efforts of the NCMEC. Mass media corporations who also have vested interests in the scheme (like Fox and NBC), help perpetuate moral panic (a mass movement based on the false and/or exaggerated perception that some group of people (in this case, registered sex offenders), are all dangerously deviant and pose a menace to society. Fear is a most awesome motivator whether real or perceived.
Registered sex offender, child molester, and violent predator are now all interchangeable terms, yet all have very different meanings. The NCMEC, John Walsh, and other board members/spokespersons seize upon every tragic case of an abducted and/or murdered child, whether committed by a registered sex offender or not, as an opportunity to lobby for even more, tougher, stricter, and overtly retroactive laws and punishments aimed at every individual registered sex offender, no matter what their actual crime or how long ago it occurred. There are even children as young as 8 years old on the registries now. Mr. Walsh frequently testifies "under oath" that our streets are littered with "mutilated and decapitated bodies of children". Not only have I never tripped across one lying in the street, but no one I know has either. There are but a handful of stranger abductions and murders each year, yet the media plays upon them repeatedly, almost obsessively at times. Their mantra a flat out lie that "they ALL have high re-offense rates and cannot ever be cured". If you don't believe that this is a lie, simply try getting someone that purports this as truth to quote their source.
The mass media has done a fantastic job of spreading unfounded fear, distrust, and hatred throughout communities across America. It is what keeps then in business. No attention is ever given to the fact that NO child has ever actually been saved by any of these laws. Of paramount importance to them is that is perceived that the laws are working.
With 600,000 people on the sex offender registry in this country, all of Whom are so very dangerous, we all ought to be neck deep in bodies of dead children simply upon walking out our front door. But we aren't of course, and the reason for this is that the information we are receiving is nothing more than pure propaganda.
What is also interesting to note is how all of these new laws Mr. Walsh and the NCMEC advocate all lead to the same place...prison. Registration is not suppose to be punitive yet the penalty for failing to meet any of the requirements carry a penalty of up to ten years in prison. Even if the original crime was a misdemeanor and the individual was sentenced to probation. Additionally, the registration requirements are constantly being piled on. Miss one thing, such as giving a phone number or license plate number of any vehicle you have access to driving and you are "failing to register". You are arrested, go to prison and can now be counted as a repeat sex offender. Not because you committed another sex offense, but because of some "technical violation". This is another effective way of duping the public and getting those "high re-offense rates" up to where the powers that be want them so that they can justify all of this madness.
Going back to the Board of the NCMEC. It is no secret that the prison industry is a booming business. Because of this there is a growing market for private prisons and wouldn't you know it, many of these same board members and supporters have stakes in that as well. The Florida Correctional Privatization Commission is run by an attorney by the name of Samuel A. Block. Mr. Block is listed on the Florida Corporation Commission website as being a co owner of a company called "Correctional Concepts Inc."- Mr. John Walsh is the other Co-owner.
Mr. Louis Freeh is also a NCMEC board member as well as the former head of the FBI. Mr. Freeh's leadership credentials include overseeing the Ruby Ridge and Waco Texas incidents which says alot about his character and compassion for the safety of children. It also raises some serious questions as to the reason for his involvement with the NCMEC whose actual caseload overwhelmingly consists of runaways and non custodial parental interference.
Why the bulk of their caseload is not the focus of the organization is a red flag in and of itself. Their focus has NEVER been on parental abductions or runaways. Instead they focus on prosecutions, sex offender legislation, case preparation, interrogations, pornography and cybercrimes. The latest crackdown is on viewers of pornography, which should net lots of new registrants and prisoners considering that the porn industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Isn't it ironic that the focus isn't on the really bad guys,those that actually manufacture it?
What exactly constitutes illegaly pornography may surprise you and all readers, especially parents with teenaged children, would be well advised to follow up on and pay very close attention to these anti-pornography laws so that your child doesn't end up on the sex offender registry for downloading the wrong images. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and there a many teens in prison right now throughout this country, (some for LIFE) for doing just that. Each picture is a seperate count. If 25 images are downloaded then they are charged with 25 counts and most likely will never see the light of day again. Be especially cautious of websites like myspace.com whose pages are filled with images of scantily clad and even unclad young men and women who may or may not actually be 18. Minors posing and photographing themselves CAN and HAVE been charged and convicted of child exploitation (of themselves), imprisoned and put on the registries. What about the exploitation of these children? It seems as though exploitation of children, lives, families, facts,and the criminal justice system is fine as long as it's the government (or the NCMEC) doing the exploiting and using our tax dollars to do it.
On the local level it is no different. In Phoenix, AZ the local political thugs have their hand in the cookie jar too. Former Arizona Governor Fife J. Symington III (who himself is a convicted felon) defrauded thousands of union workers out of their retirement pensions by falsifying documents and lying on loan applications. Mr. Symington partnered with Maricopa County Deputy attorney and Pro tem judge Norman C. Keyt to form a company called Hummingbird Defense Systems Inc.
Hummingbird Defense is a security company which managed to illegally and for commercial purposes, purchase the entire database of registered sex offenders in the State of Arizona which included some, if not all, of the low risk individuals who aren't legally subject to community notification. They are not subject because they pose no threat of re-offending.
Hummingbird's scheme was cooked up in conjunction with Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Mr. Arpaio was instrumental in getting the database for Hummingbird Defense Systems. Together they tried (unsuccessfully) to win a contract with the State of Arizona to install cameras throughout Arizona schools and hook them directly to the database. Each time someone entered the school their phot would be taken and compare to photos of the registered sex offenders in the illegally obtained database. If a match was made, school administrators were alerted and a police officer dispatched to the school to investigate. The problem is that many of these people have been on the registry for 10,20,or 30 years. Many have children or even grand-children and have perfectly legitimate reasons for being at the schools.
Hummingbird's and the Maricopa County Sheriff's office little scheme backfired however because Sheriff Joe got sloppy again. He was so eager to promote himslef and get in front of camera that he tried promoting the scheme on a news broadcast. The illegality was immediately recognized and a lawsuit followed. The Sheriff's office pulled out and the Arizona schools system rejected the whole idea.
According to Joyce Lew, media liason for the MCSO, it was discovered that "too many hands were on the information and not nearly enough safeguards in place". Ms. Lew also reported that there was also a concern about the company changing names often or working under several different names which raised some red flags with the agency, leading them to believe that the company may have something to hide".
Incidently, Hummingbird Defense Systems partner, Acsys Biometrics went ahead anyway with a bogus press release saying that they had won the contract. Why not screw the investores over too and make a few more bucks!
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**Special thanks to Diesel for the research generously contributed for this article**
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